Join Mikko Salo, the 2009 CrossFit Games champion, on his road trip across America—but this trip isn’t quite the same as the CrossFit Journal’s last Road Trip with Dave Lipson, Rob Orlando and Dave Castro. A man of few words, Salo is rarely distracted from his quest to better his training.

Today’s stop is Columbus, Ohio, home of Rogue Fitness and 2010 Games Champion Graham Holmberg. In Rogue’s warehouse gym and test facility, Salo and Holmberg push each other to better prepare for the next Games.

“If you want to get better, you need to train with somebody that’s better than you,” Holmberg says.

“That’s the main reason for my trip: to train with the best guys,” Salo says.

In addition to being a fierce competitor, Mikko is also a great team-player. More than once, Mikko helped me during the difficult and dark moments of SEALFIT. His work ethic is consistent with that of my personal hero Josh Everett as well. This should be a great video series!

Mikko is one of the best ambassadors for Crossfit, Graham too. He seems to have no ego,no unnecessary bravado, just a humble guy trying to be the best he can be.

But please please Mikko tell me that you're programming some of the skills into your work outs. 130 kg 5 x 10 squats are awesome but part of Crossfit is to develop your weaknesses. The 2010 games and the Tahoe Throwdown events really exposed that Mikko is still lacking when it comes to DU's and rope climb. These are skills that just require patience and practice. Other competitors will always have the edge on him whilst there is this hole in his repertoire.

Andrew if you have you actually been watching any videos where mikko has been asked about his programming since the games!!?? He does 10 minutes of double unders before every workout, and dedicates time to skill work. I don't think your in a position to really comment on his programming! 2010 hurt mikko and i honestly dont think he will make the same mistake again!!

My absolute worthless $.02 but Mikko, PLEASE, practice these skills when your fatigued (not at the beginning of your workout). You could tell in the Tahoe throwdown event (overhead squat, sprint, Double Unders). That you aren't comfortable doing them tired. Graham excels at doing skill activities when fatigued and that was the difference in 2010 and will be one deciding factor in 2011.

Ollie, I wasn't trying to bag on the guy. Mikko is one of my favourite Crossfitters. But that we're all human and none of us are above analysis. As Travis above says in the recent Tahoe Throwdown videos in the second to last team competition Mikko wasn't able to contribute in the DU's leaving the other 3 of his team mates to complete that section of the work. Now, there is no way they were annoyed at him for this because the man had more than contributed over the whole weekend and showed himself to be a fierce competitor. Arguably him and Spealler came out looking like the two super-elites of everyone there.

But, it did look like Mikko still has work to do on the skills side. That's all.

Training your weaknesses is a really hard thing to do mentally more than anything. I personally hate running and I have to hand my programming over to someone else otherwise I would sub-consciously miss it out left to my own devises. Mikko struggled with DU's in the 2009 games, but won through any way because of how great he was at everything else. It was just the way the cookie crumbled that meant that in the 2010 games the programming didn't suit him enough to make up for where he lost out in the skills elements. But it goes to show that in the intervening year he hadn't quite addressed it enough.

I really want to see him win back the title, and all the interviews with Mikko show that he is well up for it. So I'm sure his programming reflects this.

At the risk of coming off like a jerk - WTF happened to Bill? Dude, you got fat. No ifs, ands, or buts. You were a fit looking guy a few years ago. What happened? I don't want to be a hater, as many of us struggle with diet, etc. But if Rogue is going to be featured in these videos and *you* are going to be the spokesperson, you need to get back on track, my friend. Despite my caveats, I'm sure to take some shrapnel. Regardless, what I say is true. It's an easily addressed oversight. Maybe try some Crossfit and Paleo. Could be a winning combo.

The CrossFit Journal is a chronicle of the empirically driven, clinically tested, and community developed CrossFit program. Our mission is to provide a venue for contributing coaches, trainers, athletes, and researchers to ponder, study, debate, and define fitness and collectively advance the art and science of optimizing human performance.